Delivering Great Customer Experiences is Vital to Growth

 

MMT editors recently received a press announcement from a mold manufacturing company telling us about some significant changes the company has made to its shop floor and overall operations. What stood out for me, though, was that the customer experience was the paramount motivation for change.

I understand that the customer is the reason for everything a company does, but I’m noticing that it’s no longer just about delivering molds on time and making money. It’s about exceeding customer expectations, working leaner, stronger and more efficiently and building lasting relationships. StackTeck Systems in Ontario, Canada, is one great example.

StackTeck invested more than $4 million in new equipment in 2015 and plans to invest another $4.2 million this year on new equipment and automation “to ensure strong support for customers’ new product launches,” Lou Dimaulo, vice president of operations, says.

A new scheduling system has been implemented to more closely track and manage jobs that come through the manufacturing floor, while new machines and robotics provide a means for upping productivity. StackTeck has also made significant building upgrades and estimates the company will see a 15 percent capital increase of machine resource hours in 2016. Additionally, new employees will be hired on to fill positions that the expansion has created—namely during night and weekend shifts.

But bottom line, the customer is central to everything.

“Delivering great customer experiences is what we are focused on at StackTeck. Our capacity has been substantially increased in the last few years,” Randy Yakimishyn, president and CEO of StackTeck, says. “Since 2011 our average yearly sales growth has been 7.5%, and we are now positioned to grow much more rapidly. We also have the resources available to deliver on large mold programs while improving our overall lead times.”

Other mold manufacturers are also putting customer relationships first in order to foster growth. Check out my February feature article on JMMS, Inc., for example, and happy reading!